Basecamp Builds for Basecamp: The Ultimate Dogfooding Story

•6 min read
basecamp37signalsproject managementteam communicationremote workdogfoodingcompany culturesoftware developmentjason frieddavid heinemeier hanssonshape up

In the software world, the practice of "eating your own dogfood"—using your own products to run your business—is often touted as a path to quality and customer empathy. For Basecamp, the company (also known as 37signals), this isn't just a checkbox item; it's the foundational principle upon which their entire operation and product philosophy are built. Basecamp, the renowned project management and team communication software, is the central nervous system for the company that creates it. Every task, every discussion, every project, and every internal announcement happens within Basecamp itself. This deep, unwavering commitment to being their own most critical and comprehensive user is what shapes the product's distinct, opinionated, and enduring appeal.

Born from Necessity: Solving Their Own Problems First

The origin story of Basecamp is a classic tale of "scratching your own itch." As a web design consultancy in the early 2000s, 37signals needed a better way to manage client projects and communication without vital information getting lost in emails and disparate systems. As detailed in their book "Getting Real" and reiterated in many talks and posts, they built Basecamp to solve their own collaboration and project oversight challenges.

This philosophy of building software for themselves first has remained a core tenet. Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson, co-founders of 37signals, are vocal proponents of this approach. In a REWORK podcast episode aptly titled "Eat your own dog food," they discuss why every 37signals product is used internally before it ships. This practice, they argue, keeps them incredibly close to the real problems users face and serves as a crucial filter—sometimes even killing off ideas that don't prove genuinely useful in their own day-to-day work.

Running the Entire Company on Basecamp

At Basecamp (the company), Basecamp (the product) isn't just a tool; it's the tool. This comprehensive internal usage spans every facet of their operation:

  • Product Development: From initial idea shaping (using their "Shape Up" methodology, which itself is managed within Basecamp projects) to to-do lists for specific features, code discussions, bug tracking, and coordinating launches, every step of the product development lifecycle happens inside Basecamp. The Basecamp Handbook section on "How We Work" outlines their 6-week work cycles and 2-week cooldown periods, all orchestrated within the platform.
  • Internal Communication: As a pioneering remote-first company (a philosophy extensively detailed in their book "Remote: Office Not Required"), clear, organized communication is paramount. Basecamp's Message Boards, Campfires (group chat), Pings (direct messages), and Automatic Check-ins are the primary channels for all internal discourse, reducing reliance on scattered emails or ephemeral real-time-only chats. This directly tests and refines these core communication features.
  • Project Management for All Teams: It's not just product teams. Marketing, customer support, operations, and even administrative tasks are managed within Basecamp projects. As described on their website, they run dozens of projects at once— "one for a web site redesign, one for planning an upcoming offsite, one for working with our accountants, and one just for the executive team to plan strategy, etc."
  • Collaboration with External Partners: Basecamp is also used to collaborate with external clients and contractors, meaning the "client access" features are also rigorously tested from both perspectives.

How Internal Use Directly Shapes Basecamp's Features and Simplicity

The opinionated nature of Basecamp—its focus on simplicity and its "less is more" approach to features—is a direct result of its creators building the tool they themselves want to use every day.

  • Feature Genesis from Internal Needs: Many Basecamp features and improvements are born from the team's own evolving workflows. For example, recent enhancements like Direct Replies and Boosts in Campfires and Pings were added because the team found them useful for their own communication. The ability to have multiple instances of tools like Message Boards or Campfires within a single project arose from their own need for better organization, such as separating internal team chat from automated bot messages or client-facing discussions.
  • Refining Core Tools: Constant daily use of To-Dos, Message Boards, Docs & Files, and Schedules by the entire team ensures these core tools are practical, straightforward, and effective for getting work done. If a workflow within Basecamp is cumbersome for them, it's a signal that it needs rethinking.
  • The "No" to Feature Bloat: Because they are building Basecamp for themselves, they are highly resistant to adding features that don't solve a real, recurring problem they experience. This protects the product from the feature bloat that plagues many software tools and keeps it aligned with their philosophy of simplicity, a point often made in their book "Rework."

The Benefits and the "Opinionated Software" Outcome

This unwavering commitment to dogfooding has several profound benefits for Basecamp and its users:

  • Deep Product Understanding: The team possesses an unparalleled understanding of their product's strengths and weaknesses because they live in it.
  • Inherent Quality Control: Bugs and usability issues are often discovered and fixed rapidly because they directly impact the team's own productivity.
  • Authenticity: They can speak about their product with genuine authority and passion because it's a tool they truly rely on and believe in.
  • Focus: It keeps the product focused on solving core problems related to project management and team communication in a clear, organized way.

However, this intensely internal focus also leads to what they call "opinionated software." Basecamp is designed around how 37signals works best, and this specific approach might not be a perfect fit for every organization. Some users coming from more traditional or complex project management tools might find Basecamp lacking in certain advanced features like granular reporting, complex Gantt charts, or extensive customization options, as noted in some external reviews or PM Software analyses. This isn't necessarily a flaw in Basecamp's eyes; it's a deliberate design choice born from their philosophy of prioritizing simplicity and effectiveness for their way of working.

Conclusion: The Basecamp Way is Built on Basecamp

Basecamp's story is perhaps one of the purest examples of a company thriving by "eating its own dogfood." Their project management and team communication software is not just a product they sell; it's the operational bedrock of their remote-first company, the canvas for their product development, and the medium for all their internal collaboration. This intimate, daily reliance ensures that Basecamp evolves in a way that is practical, user-centric (with themselves as the primary user advocates), and deeply aligned with their long-held principles of simplicity, clarity, and "calm work." For teams looking for a proven, opinionated way to manage projects and communicate, Basecamp offers a solution that is, quite literally, built on its own success.